And a hearty thanks to all our contributors, all our fans, and all the tattooists out there creating wonderful, interesting, portable art. Without all of you, Tattoosday would have been a blip of an idea, and nothing more.

My first tattoo was modified from a piece of flash at Body Art Studios by an artist who goes by the moniker "Siki". Shortly thereafter, Siki left the shop and went on his way.

My friend Pete knows who he is but, until recently, I hadn't met anyone with ink from Siki, other than myself.

Then, I met Nick on the R train one day after work and, while discussing his many tattoos (he "lost count after 45," they've all connected) , I heard him talking about Siki.

So today's tattoo is by Siki and was, like my lynx, modified from an old piece of flash. Although he adapted it a lot more fully and developed a more unique tattoo.

Siki and Nick had a mutual friend named Billy, who Nick would often go with to get tattooed. When he passed away, they added Billy's name to the bottom of the tattoo as a tribute to their departed friend.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Boldly planted on her upper right arm, Michelle explained that she paraphrased and pared down a longer quotation to read, more simply, "Live for the moments that take your breath away". I believe she was referring to the saying, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

The flowers in the photo are cherry blossoms that were done in blue, rather than the traditional pink because, as Michelle tells it, she's "not really a pink kind of girl".

There was a gentleman in the produce section with a lot of tattoos, and Melanie pointed out one to me that she thought was cool, this owl on his calf:

Turns out that the guy was Timmy from Timmy Tattoo, an artist whose name rang a distant bell. Work by Timmy appeared in one of Tattoosday's earliest posts, when I met Jackie,an FIT student whose tattoos appeared here.

The end result was this amazing tattoo that captures the scene of their vacation. One of Jim's other brothers got the same tattoo. Note the three figures hiking are meant to represent Jim and his two brothers.

Thanks to Jim for sharing this great tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Pete explained that this tattoo is a tribute to his grandfather, a magician who went by the name "The Great Merlini". The tattoo was designed by Kiki at Tattoos by Lou in the South Beach section of Miami, Florida. Pete went to him and explained what he wanted and Kiki drew it up and inked it.

On a sidebar, the Great Merlini wasn't just your run-of-the-mill magician. The man behind the persona was Clayton Rawson (click name for full biography). Rawson wrote four mystery novels that featured the character also known as The Great Merlini. And as this YouTube clip shows, Merlini also was a noted illusionist:

Thanks to Pete for sharing this magical tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

These are,of course, images from the original AtariSpace Invaders, one of the forerunners that was the first video game to truly take the world by storm.

Preston told me that these symbols represent space invasion. The neon green color makes them stick out even more and, he added, they make a "great ice breaker".

As a result, he continued, "people invade my space" when they question him (as I was doing) about his tattoo.

Preston is a musician by trade, who goes by the moniker Press Reset. Check out his website here. And this link will take you to his new record <3 on iTunes, where you can listen to (and hopefully, buy) his music.

Preston credits the tattoo to an artist named Ziggy who tattoos out of South Florida.

Thanks to Preston for sharing his alien neck tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

In an ensuing email, she asked if she could send her friend Shannon my way to share her ink. "Of course," I replied, and was directed by Sherry to Borders, where Shannon worked. "Ask to see her wieners," she said and added, parenthetically, "(it's G rated, I promise!)."

The Borders in question is part of my normal stomping ground, so I kept my eyes peeled. No sign of Shannon and her wieners.

Then, at the beginning of the month, I finally found Shannon and met Geddy Lee and Sarah Lee, the two wieners tattooed on her upper right arm. They are of course, wiener dogs, more formally known as dachshunds:

The one on the left is Geddy Lee, named after the lead singer of Rush. Shannon's a big fan of the Canadian rock trio.

Sarah Lee, on the right, is a fictional dachshund, do-si-do'ing with Geddy, as they are dance partners.

The tattoo took two sessions, which shows her devotion to Geddy Lee who, Shannon acknowledges, is "that little jerk [that] sucked my soul". She loves him to no end.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

This piece, which is located on his upper right arm, took about twelve hours and features a large mutant Venus Flytrap attacking Cape Fear. Tim is from Wilmington, North Carolina, and this tattoo is a nod to his hometown, with a twist of disaster movie thrown into the mix. It's a brilliant idea for a tattoo, and very unusual.

I love the detail and color that the artist Josh Payne utilized in this amazing piece.

Monday, July 19, 2010

My trip to the Yes Gallery in Williamsburg on Saturday for the launch party of the Matty No Times benefit was complicated by the weekend suspension of the G train.

Rather than a 1-transfer commute from South Brooklyn, the trip involved a lengthy trip on the R train which took me through Manhattan and into Queens, where a shuttle bus skirted me back to Brooklyn. Are you kidding me?

But I didn't want to miss this event, not only because it was for a good cause as the NY tattoo community rallied to help one of their own, but because it would give me the chance to see some amazing art and possibly meet some of the artists behind the work.

I shed my backpack and just brought my notebook, stuffed with fliers, although I didn't necessarily expect to do the Tattoosday thing at the event. But you never know, and it was a long (1 hour, 28 minutes, according to HopStop) trek. Who knows who I might meet along the way?

I arrived relatively early, just in time to catch Thomas Hooper exiting the gallery. I have long admired Mr. Hooper's work (even his web site is art) and was hoping to meet him.

I introduced myself and he was soft-spoken and polite. I would have loved to chat with him further, but he was headed elsewhere and seemed to be in a hurry to go.

Inside, the Yes gallery's air conditioning was a welcome relief, as I started looking at the hundred-plus works of art that had been donated by artists from all over to help Three Kings' artist Matty No Times recover from staggering bills that resulted from an emergency liver transplant last Fall.

I introduced myself to Matty (Mr. No Times sounds weirdly formal) and chatted briefly as he ran the table where people paid for the art, left donations, and entered the raffle. He is a very nice guy and seemed genuinely appreciative of the turnout.

The list of artists who contributed their work was staggering. Check it out:

One of the bonuses in going to the event, for me at least, was seeing the work donated by Peter Caruso, who is the artist who created my third tattoo.

And whereas, I had discussed with Matty and several other guests the etiquette of taking close-up photos of the art hanging on the walls, I did have Pete's permission to post his painting, which we were all excited to see sold early on.

I was pleasantly surprised to run into one former Tattoosday contributor, Elizabeth, along with her husband. We chatted awhile as they made their way around the gallery.

As the crowd swelled, I began to become overstimulated. Do I look at the art on the walls? Or do I look at the amazing art on the bodies? Most folks would have assumed I would have gone hog-wild taking photos of peoples' tattoos, but remember, I tend to embrace the random encounter aspect of the Tattoosday mission, and just like one doesn't see a lot of photos from conventions and tattoo shops, I avoided interviewing people about their tattoos. It just didn't seem sporting to do so. I did however, take a couple of shots of Peter's tattoos, to be unveiled at a later date here on the site.

I didn't receive a call from Matty on Sunday, so I will assume I didn't win the raffle. No worries. I wasn't in a position to invest in any art, so I did my part to help raise funds for this worthy cause.

You can support Matty through Three Kings Tattoo, where he works, and you still have time to visit the Yes Gallery, at 147 India Street in Brooklyn, and check out the art through Friday, July 23.

Thanks to all the artists who participated and made for such a wonderful visual experience, and to all the extended friends of Tattoosday who made the event more enjoyable for me, especially Pete and his wife Maria, who let me tag along with them at the gallery and spared me the subway after the show with a much-quicker ride home!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Hannah has over twenty tattoos and told me she wanted this piece to have alot of different elements in it. The gold tooth was a must, because Hannah loves pirates.

Gold teeth in sugar skulls are not necessarily unusual. Chainsaws, however are a bit out of the ordinary:

The chainsaw, Hannah explained, is a tribute to her uncle, who is a lumberjack. And, she added frankly, the bottle is there to acknowledge her grandfather, an alcoholic.

This sugar skull was completed in two 2-3 hour sessions by Tim Barnes at Holeshot's Premium Tattoo & Piercing in Amherst, Massachusetts. Tim has moved on to Florida, according to Hannah, but I haven't been able to identify where he is currently working.

Readers can see all of the sugar skulls previously posted on Tattoosday by clicking here or on the Sugar Skulls tag at the end of the post.

Thanks again to Hannah for sharing her sugar skull with us here on Tattoosday!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

This lovely tattoo, on Lindsay's upper left arm, is punctuated by this part of the tattoo on her biceps:

The picture tells the story and the words, all meaning a form of "peace" in Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, and English, punctuate the images just inches away.

Lindsay took a class on world religions at the University of Rhode Island and this influenced her greatly. She wanted the tattoo to focus on the beauty at the heart of religion, and to disregard the conflict that so often plagues religious dogma.

Lindsay feels that the tenet of peace is often lost and this is her way of expressing how it means so much, but is forgotten in relations with people of different backgrounds.

She brought a picture that somewhat embodied how she wanted the tattoo to look in to Artfreek Tattoo in Providence, Rhode Island. She and the artist Brian Mullen collaborated on interpreting what she wanted the piece to embody and she was very happy with the end result.

The tattoo was completed in two short sittings that spanned four hours.

I met Roman, who conceived and performs in "Evolution," showing Tuesday, July 13, and Tuesday, July 20, at the Magnet Theater (254 W. 29th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues). With him was Louie, who directs the show which is billed as "international and comedic true stories intertwining spirituality, sex, laws, identity, drug vusts, discomfort, fear and discovery from a spontaneous road trip down south".

Roman shared first, which seemed only fair, as it was his tattoo I noticed,creeping out from under his left sleeve:

He got this purple lotus because he likes the color purple (the actual color more than the movie of the same name). And the lotus is special because, in Buddhism, he understands the lotus to symbolize "freedom of attachment and desire".

This tattoo took 3 to 4 hours and was inked by David Sena when he was at Rising Dragon when they were at their 23rd Street location, although Sena is now at North Star Tattoo, the shop he co-founded in the East Village.

Louie's tattoo was much smaller, but it had a more elaborate story:

This small design, on the outer left ankle of, represents a house in Vancouver, British Columbia, in which he and seven different people lived at different times during their college days. The house and the memories they all shared together there are so important, that Louie and six other friends share the same tattoo.

The narrative took on a more elaborate spin, as Louie explained that his group of friends came up with a family name to represent the denizens of this house. They were/still are "the Fletchers," all residing in the Fletcher House. He likened them to an extended family like The Ramones, and they chose the name because it sounded tough.

So, as Louie a.k.a. "Rock" Fletcher tells it, his friend "Slim" Fletcher drew up the simple design for the house tattoo, and they had it inked at Addiction Ink NYC. Over the years, when one of the Fletcher family came to town, they went down to the shop to have the family member tattooed with the same design, not necessarily on the ankle, like Louie/Rock.

It should be noted that Kim Fletcher, who is a relatively new mom (congrats Kim), has avoided the tattoo, so the rest of her Fletcher family created a needlepoint design of the house for her, so that she has the tattoo in a different shape and form, needled, but not in her flesh. Yet. Now that it is written here, forever on the pages of Tattoosday, it is only a matter of time. Kim Fletcher, you destiny is calling.

Thanks again to both Roman and Louie for sharing their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! Be sure to catch their play "Evolution" at the Magnet. If you show up at the box office and mention this post, you won't get any kind of discount, but I'm sure that they'll be thrilled to hear that you showed up as a result of their contribution here!

However, we didn't talk about Mor's work.That never came up.Rather,we discussed the Tattoo on Mor's forearm:

Mor's mother had given her a little golden key as a gift that she wore on her earlobe. At some point in the middle of the night, this began to bother Mor, who would pluck the key off and throw it across the room. In the morning, Mor would find the key. This unusual pattern became a ritual of sorts until one morning, the key was nowhere to be found. Lost forever over the years, this tattoo reclaimed the key, and now Mor has it tattooed forever.

The bird represents a friend of Mor who is an "adopted mother" and someone very close to Mor.

The tattoo was done by Shiloah Rusciolelli, who currently lives in Seattle.

Thanks to Mor for sharing this unusual tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Ryan went to the artist Scott Bramble, who works out of Mercury Tattoo Studio in Glenside, Pennsylvania. He says he let Scott "do what he wanted and he ran with it". The end result was stunning.

I particularly like the detail on the tail feathers.

Ryan remarked that, at the time he had this done, he was married and going through a "horrible" divorce. Now that is in the past and he is happily involved with a girl from Phoenix, Arizona, which he acknowledges is a "weird coincidence".

Thanks to Ryan for sharing this amazing tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This piece is based on a collage of pictures Penny took at a handful of metal shows.

"Which bands?" I asked, hoping to find a common ground with this younger person. I cut my teeth on early American metal (I still cherish my vinyl pressing of Metallica'sKill 'Em All on Megaforce records), but then again, that was the '80s. Penny uttered names I had heard (yay me!) but alas, couldn't put in their necessary classifications.

Elektra explained that this was designed with blue and red ink to have a 3D effect, when healed. However, she confessed, she didn't take care of it as well as she should have, and the effect is muted. Rob Dixxx, formerly of Yankee Tattoo is the artist.

Added to this piece is the signature of Amanda Palmer, lead singer of the Dresden Dolls, who Elektra met one night, after the band tattoo had been done. A friend with a tattoo machine made the autograph permanent.